VOA – CONNECT
EPISODE 65
AIR DATE 04 12 2019
TRANSCRIPT
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
A Higher Place
((SOT))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
I climb in a traditional style, which means that I have specific gear that's designed for placing in a crack and as I climb, that gear catches me if I fall.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Her Own Place
((SOT))
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
I love to deal with every kind of crisis because it really is like a detective story. It’s like a mystery that you have to uncover.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
A Very Pretty Place
((SOT))
((Jason Cerda, Cerdafied Dance Studios))
There are probably about 27,000 different species but then, when you talk about how many hybrids there are, it’s hundreds of thousands.
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((PKG)) PAMELA SHANTI PACK -- OFF-WIDTH CLIMBER
((Banner: Scaling New Heights))
((Reporter/Camera: Arturo Martinez))
((Drone & high angle shots: Sylvan Christensen))
((GoPro footage: Clark Glenn))
((Map: Not far from Moab in Utah))
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
Really, I think I was born to be an off-width climber. That was what my body was designed for and clearly it was what my personality was designed for, because it requires an ability to believe in yourself beyond your physical capacity.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack. Off-width climber))
My name is Pamela Shanti Pack, and I'm a professional rock climber.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
Utah is my favorite place to climb because we have these massive sandstone cliffs and often I'm the very first person to climb those particular cracks. So, it's like being some sort of an explorer.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
I climb in a traditional style, which means that I have specific gear that's designed for placing in a crack and as I climb, that gear catches me if I fall. Choosing when to place the gear, whether you're going to place the gear, what are the chances you're going to fall, it just adds the component of reading the space as I climb and that makes it a little more exciting for me.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
Being a professional rock climber as a woman is relatively new. When I started in this particular style, it was 2010. I was the first woman to devote myself to off-width climbing and there was a lot of resistance to that and I was criticized for everything. It didn't matter what. I was criticized for wearing my hair down. I was criticized for what I wore when I climbed. Ultimately, all that criticism really inspired me to continue climbing.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
Alright. Good to go.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
It is a dangerous sport, so, there's a lot that goes into it. I've climbed despite having broken ribs and various other injuries. In a way, maybe that's a form of meditation. I'm able to put the pain in the background and I will make myself climb and allow myself to feel that pain after I finished the climb.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
And then this is an unpleasant moment where I am getting some blood work done after falling and needing to have surgery on my kidney. I've had two really bad injuries. The one was a fall where I had kidney surgery and then the other was that one where I had the back injury.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
It's always historically been, maybe, the least popular style of climbing there's ever been because of the physical brutality of this style. But I very quickly realized that it was a technically brilliant style and an artful style, and that I could change it, that I could find new routes, and that I could establish new techniques, and my focus, as I said many times, is to bring grace to the grovel.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
I think my greatest passion or obsession, as a climber, aside from just climbing off-width, is looking for routes that are improbable. I'll drive down these canyons and I'll look for routes that no one else has seen before and it takes a certain eye, a lot of imagination, a lot of creativity. It's like being an artist, having the idea for a book, or the idea for a painting, and I'm just seeking out those ideas and then I'll create them. My emphasis is on finding lines that tell a really good story.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
One of the joys of establishing a route is then you get to name the route. One of them is named ‘the kill artist’ so that probably gives you a little bit of an idea of what that experience is like.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
I think as far as first two ascents now, I've lost track, but well over a 100 at this point.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
My father, Robert Pack, is a poet and he wrote this poem for me to express his apprehensions about my climbing but also to express his understanding for what I do.
((NATS))
((Pamela Pack, Off-width climber))
Down on firm planet earth,
my wife and I share apprehensions
that are easy to explain
as dread of helplessness,
and yet without the ecstasies
in disciplined suspension of her breath,
((Voice of Robert Pack, Poet and Pamela’s father))
her almost weightless floating there,
perhaps the vast, unfathomable
uncertainty of parenthood
possesses in its dark abysmal depths
a mad exhilaration of its own.
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up
((Banner))
Musical Destiny
((SOT))
((Laura Lineberger, U.S Army Soldier, Music Librarian, First Female Euphonium Player in the Army Band))
And when it was time for me to choose my instrument, I so desperately wanted to play the saxophone. And my parents, who didn't have a whole lot of money because they were educators, they said, you know, we've already got this baritone in the closet. If you want to be in band, that's what you are playing.
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B
((PKG)) CRISIS MANAGER
((Banner: Crisis Manager))
((Reporter: Dora Mekouar))
((Camera: Kaveh Rezaei))
((Adapted by: Bronwyn Benito))
((Map: New York, New York City))
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
I fix things. I’m probably just a natural fixer. I like to make them better and I’m quite good at it. And I’m quite good at knowing the right way to think, the right strategy to adopt to fix a problem.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
I’m Davia Temin. My company is Temin and Company. We are a boutique management consultancy. That means we’re a crisis management and reputation management firm. We work to create, enhance, and save reputations.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
I love to deal with every kind of crisis because it really is like a detective story. It’s like a mystery that you have to uncover. How do you find, just the right thing to start to fix it?
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
I can’t tell you who my clients are. Obviously, we sign nondisclosure agreements. They are a number of the Fortune 500 corporations.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
When companies come to us, when we work with them, they know who we are. Our reputation is to be a purpose driven, ethical, socially responsible crisis management firm. Now that doesn’t mean that I’m not competitive as all get out. That doesn’t mean that I won’t work on every single way, all the ways, to get to the right point and to have the client win but it means that we’ll do it in the right way. And so, most companies that come to us share those values.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
Most of the crises I work on, you haven’t heard of.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
My track record is pretty good. In fact, I am hard-pressed to think of a stratagem that didn’t work in the end.
((NATS))
So, everybody talks about crisis being the new normal today and I believe it is because we’ve got so much in the world and it all comes at us at different angles.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
((NATS))
So, we can decide when want to publish it.
One of my crisis rules that I think is really, really important and it’s hard for people to understand when they are in a painful situation.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
Pain gets better. And if you can remember that when you are in the moment of deepest pain, you won’t panic. You won’t do things you shouldn’t do. You won’t put in fixes that are the wrong fixes. You’ll tough it out.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
Some of the worst mistakes that you can make is to go into denial and not take action very quickly. The next is to give up your control. It is very interesting how many organizations have a tendency to just sort of, in a crisis, roll over. No, no, no, no, no. You learn how to fight. And you do it smart and you do it realistically but you learn how to fight. Another mistake you can make is to not apologize when you should apologize.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
An apology, well done and one that is from the heart, not sort of a false apology, is really, really important.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
There are a couple of ways that it’s different being a woman in a high-powered position. Mostly I don’t notice it.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
But what I am finding is that as a consultant, there is no HR department to make sure that people get paid the same amount. And I am competing. There is a subtle bias that I see that they’ll pay men consultants more than women or they’ll question it just a little bit more.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
It’s one of the last bastions of unconscious bias.
((NATS))
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
About 13 years ago, I was in the back of a taxi, and the driver went nuts. He went running red lights and he died in a crash that ensued. It was a huge crash. I almost lost my leg.
((NATS))
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
In that moment, you have a little conversation with whomever, your maker, whomever it is. If you let me live, I’ll give back. I’ll make it count. You don’t go into denial. You go into action. And all of a sudden, I figured out how I was going to save my life. I did it. I rolled onto the floor. It protected me from the impact. I used all of my crisis management rules in that moment and in the time around it to save my life. And I did save my life. They work. I promise you, they work.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
I’m going to be in the world. I am going to be creating value, not only for my firm and for us, but for others.
((Davia Temin, Founder, Temin and Company))
One of my biggest rules of crisis management is what I call the ‘karmic cockroach test’. This is a litmus test to use in crisis, to know whether you’re going in the right path or not. So, what I say is: if anything I say or my firm says or does or suggests to a client, that they say or do, will bring them back in the next life as a cockroach, you can’t do it.
((PKG)) PIA – LAURA LINEBERGER
((Banner: Serving Through Music))
((Executive Producer: Marsha James))
((Camera: Kaveh Rezaei))
((Map: Fort Myer, Virginia))
((NATS))
((Laura Lineberger, U.S Army Soldier, Music Librarian, Euphonium Player))
I don't think I understood the gravity of becoming a member of the military of any of armed service. My role or my idea, my concept of serving has changed over the years. I'm nearly 29 years in the Army band now
((Courtesy: Laura Lineberger))
and when I joined in 1990, it was, I get to play the euphonium, yeah! But then it changed into, I get to serve my country. I get to wear this uniform. That's been very humbling over the years.
((Laura Lineberger, U.S Army Soldier, Music Librarian, Euphonium Player))
My name is Laura Lineberger. I'm a sergeant major in the United States Army. I'm a euphonium player and now I'm a chief librarian.
((NATS))
((Laura Lineberger, U.S Army Soldier, Music Librarian, Euphonium Player))
I was born and raised in Fairfield County, Ohio. I come from a line of many educators
((Courtesy: Laura Lineberger))
and music was very important to the overall development of their children. I have a brother, eight years older, that played a baritone horn, which is the less professional model of what I currently play. And when it was time for me to choose my instrument, I so desperately wanted to play the saxophone. And my parents, who didn't have a whole lot of money because they were educators, they said, you know, we've already got this baritone in the closet. If you want to be in band, that's what you are playing.
((Courtesy: Laura Lineberger))
And I auditioned for all four branches of the United States services. I made the finals every single time, and it wasn't until here with Pershing's Own that they finally said, we want her. And I was especially elated because I was able to join the Army brass band, which is a performing group within the Army band Pershing's Own that doesn't exist anymore sadly, but brass bands are truly my love for developing my craft for the euphonium brass bands is the best ensemble to play in.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Laura Lineberger))
((Laura Lineberger, U.S Army Soldier, Music Librarian, Euphonium Player))
Formerly, as a euphonium player in the ceremonial band and in the brass band, I had to keep my musical ability to a certain level. You're expected to be able to perform at a high level whenever called upon, whenever the mission called for. Currently, as the chief librarian, a lot of our job in the Army band music library is to make sure that all of the arrangements that are proffered for our organization that they're all legal and under strict copyright. We also make sure that all of our music that we put on the music stand is production level ready.
((NATS))
((Laura Lineberger, U.S Army Soldier, Music Librarian, Euphonium Player))
The euphonium is generally regarded as a boy instrument and largely all brass instruments can be regarded as boy instruments, and conversely, flutes and piccolos and clarinets, they tend to be girl instruments. And I think that dispelling the image of female brass players is really important. There's no reason why you can't be a 10 year old girl and play the baritone horn because I did it. The advice that I would give to young girls that are aspiring to be in a service band: practice, practice, practice. Hone your craft. You need to keep yourself as well-rounded as possible in terms of service to a military organization, but really key is having fun while making music.
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up
((Banner))
The New Botany
((SOT))
((Casey Houweling, Owner, Houweling’s Inc.))
So it makes economic sense, but something you have to do because water, water is probably the most valuable thing that we have.
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C
((PKG)) HIGH--TECH TOMATOES
((Banner: Plants))
((Reporter: Crystal Dilworth))
((VOA Persian))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: Camarillo, California))
((Banner:
Houweling’s grows tomatoes in a 50 hectare sustainable greenhouse
The greenhouse is 24 times more productive than a conventional field))
((Banner:
The greenhouse is 24 times more productive than a conventional field))
((Casey Houweling, Owner, Houweling’s Inc.))
Obviously there’s glass up there. That’s to let the sun through. There’s nothing better than the sun. There’s no artificial light that can replicate the growing capabilities of the sun and all the other great things that a man-made light bulb can do. We turn everything from the nutrients, combined with the sun, into the plant factory, which actually is alive, and it moves and it does all kinds of things, and that transforms it into tomatoes. It’s really quite a complex system because plants have balances. They either want to produce leaves, or they want to produce fruit. You want to encourage the fruit but not too much, because you need leaves, because these plants that are in here will last for a year. So, we want the ‘factory’ up top to continue to produce the sugars to keep that plant going, but we don’t want to starve it of sugars and say we’re going to steer it all to the tomatoes. These rows, from one end to the other, are 125 meters long. But every plant down here is the same, and that’s the key to growing in a system like this.
((Banner:
Water for the greenhouse is collected from rainfall on the roof))
((Casey Houweling, Owner, Houweling’s Inc.))
So, every drop of water the plants get, they use and what they don’t use gets recycled, sterilized and resent out to the plants. We use high quality fertilizers, which is nutrients, you know that. I mean, basically what the plant gets is what we as humans need to survive. Through that whole process, we use probably about 10 percent of what a field farmer uses to produce the same amount of product. I think one of the biggest challenges in the world, from a food perspective, is the imbalances of the rich and the poor countries. Really, (with) this kind of technology and other technologies, we have the capabilities to feed the world, to feed double the population of the world, easily with utilizing what it is. But it takes money. It takes planning. It takes foresight. And you know, do we, as a world population, take this seriously enough to work together for the common good and do it in a manner where you can do this profitably? Because I think often times what gets left out of this is the economics behind it. You know, it has to generate wealth. My heart goes out for the people that can’t feed their kids, right? I can do a little. You can do a little. I think that together if we all do a little, then we can start making some really big differences.
((NATS))
((PKG)) FLOWERS
((Banner: Flowers))
((Reporter/Camera: Zdenko Novacki))
((Additional Camera: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((Banner: A temporary Smithsonian exhibition brings together hundreds of orchids, showing their stunning variety))
((NATS))
((Melanie Pyle, Horticulturalist, Smithsonian Gardens)) Orchids, as a family of flowers and plants, is the largest, one of the largest plant families there is, and it's extremely diverse in the very shapes and sizes and environments that they live in.
((NATS))
((Melanie Pyle, Horticulturalist, Smithsonian Gardens))
Orchids can be found all over the world and on every continent except for Antarctica. The majority of the family is located around the equator, in tropical regions, but they can be anywhere.
((NATS))
((Melanie Pyle, Horticulturalist, Smithsonian Gardens))
Their ability to adapt to this variety of environments that makes them unique.
((NATS))
((Melanie Pyle, Horticulturalist, Smithsonian Gardens))
This is known as Pansy orchid, because the face of the flower is very similar to those of a pansy. These guys are very fragrant but very difficult for the homeowner to grow because they need cold conditions.
((NATS))
((Melanie Pyle, Horticulturalist, Smithsonian Gardens)) This variety of orchids is known as the Lady Slipper. This right here is again the labellum, the modified petal, and it looks like a Lady Slipper, hence the name. People mistake these for carnivorous plants because this bucket here is where the insect will enter, but they will not be eaten like they would in a carnivorous plant.
((NATS))
((Melanie Pyle, Horticulturalist, Smithsonian Gardens))
So, this again is another example of an epiphyte or an epiphytic plant because it grows in the branches of trees and is a beautiful display of purple. And the insect actually enters right there, and will get pollen attached to his back that comes from right there and fly to another orchid.
((NATS))
((Melanie Pyle, Horticulturalist, Smithsonian Gardens)) There are probably about 27,000 different species but then, when you talk about how many hybrids there are, which are plants that are created by our hands, it’s hundreds of thousands.
((NATS))
((PKG)) HIP-HOP DANCE SCHOOL
((Banner: Woo! Dance!))
((Reporter: Maxim Moskalkov))
((Camera: David Gogokhia, Artyom Kokhan))
((VOA Russian))
((Adapted by: Zdenko Novacki))
((Map: Alexandria, Virginia))
((Banner: Hip-Hop Guru Opens Dance Studio in US Capital))
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Jason Cerda)) YouTube Logo
((Jason Cerda, Cerdafied Dance Studios))
I’ve actually have been dancing my whole life before I was a singer. I danced since I was five years old. I would do talent shows at my schools and my high schools. You know, I watched Michael Jackson on TV and Usher and Justin Timberlake and people like that, and I would just look up to them
and it was like an itch I had as a young kid.
((NATS))
((Jason Cerda, Cerdafied Dance Studios))
In this area, I feel it has so much talent. There’s so many good dancers in the area that don’t get the exposure that they deserve. Everybody always feels like they need to go to New York or L.A. or Miami and I disagree. I think that there’s a lot of talent here. Just because D.C.’s known for politics, doesn’t mean that we can’t be known for entertainment as well.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Jason Cerda)) YouTube Logo
((Gabrielle Odom, Hip-Hop and Street Jazz Dance Teacher))
A passion of mine is building other dancers and making them better. So, watching their growth
((Courtesy: Jason Cerda)) YouTube logo
is really fulfilling for me. So, that’s where my passion comes from, from teaching and from dance as well.
((NATS))
((Courtesy: Jason Cerda)) YouTube logo
((Jason Cerda, Cerdafied Dance Studios))
We dabbled in entertainment. There’s a lot of big artists that have come from this area. Chris Brown, Marvin Gaye, Alia,
Timbaland, Missy Elliott, Pherrell, but nobody gets the notoriety as a dancer.
((NATS))
((Jason Cerda, Cerdafied Dance Studios))
When you go to L.A. it’s very, very competitive there. You can’t just be good in L.A. You have to be amazing. So, the goal here is to prepare you as much as we can in every style so that when you go there, you’re not completely lost and you have a chance to succeed and to represent, hopefully, the D.C. area.
((NATS))
BREAK
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
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